In detention, Farooq Abdullah turns to Quran

National Conference president and MP Farooq Abdullah has turned to religion in his home in Srinagar, which has been declared as a sub jail by the J&K administration. Known for his humour, Farooq now reads Quran and offers namaz five times a day, sources said. His house, G-40, at Srinagar’s posh Gupkar Road is sandwiched between the houses of his younger sister Suriaya and elder daughter Safiya. The 81-year-old three-time former chief minister regularly exchanges greetings with both of them from the lawn of his house. However the other doors of his house have been sealed and the entry is permitted only from the front. 

Farooq has access to television, but not to newspapers. It's not known whether he is able to watch cable or satellite television. Safiya, who has put up the erstwhile J&K flag and a black flag—apparently as a mark of protest against the revocation of special status of J&K—outside her house, is allowed to drop her kids to Army Public School in Badami Bagh cantonment that also houses the headquarters of Army’s 15 Corps also called Chinar Corps. She also helps her father take medicine on time. 

The J&K administration has justified the slapping of Public Safety Act (PSA) on the NC president on the grounds that he has ‘tremendous potential to create public disorder in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley’. The administration has cited several instances since 2016 where he made statements in conflict with the law and in support of the Hurriyat Conference.

Farooq was booked under PSA a day before the Supreme Court on September 16 asked the Centre and J&K administration to respond to a plea by MDMK general secretary Vaiko demanding that the former J&K chief minister be produced before the court. Vaiko had sought Farooq’s release so that he could attend a conference in Chennai.  

The order to detain Farooq under PSA was approved by J&K administration’s advisory board and signed by the deputy commissioner of Srinagar.  

NC leader and Baramulla MP Akbar Lone told reporters in Srinagar that there was no justification for slapping PSA on Farooq. “What can we do except move court?,’’ Lone said. “ If anybody stood for India in Kashmir it was Farooq Abdullah. He took all the abuse for standing for India; this is how they are paying him back.’’  

Two weeks ago, the J&K High Court had permitted Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, NC MP from Anantnag, to meet Farooq at his residence. 

“We wanted to enquire about his health as he has a heart problem,’’ Hasnain told THE WEEK. He said he also met former chief minister and Farooq’s son, Omar Abdullah, who has been kept in preventive detention at Hari Niwas, the residence of former Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir Hari Singh.

“Omar has grown beard,’’ he said. “He has access to newspapers but not to television.’’   

The slapping of PSA on one of the former Union ministers, who has defended India’s stand on Kashmir in various international forums including the UN, came after he refused to soften his stand against the Centre's decision to revoke J&K's special status.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while responding to Congress leader Shahi Tharoor’s query about the whereabouts of Farooq, said in the Parliament: “I have  made it clear thrice that Farooq Abdullahji is at his home; he is not under arrest, he is under detention; he is in good health. Maij masti mein hain, unko nahe aana hai toh gun kanpati par rakh bahar naje la sakte hum (he is happy and cheerful, if he doesn’t want to come, then we cannot make him do so at gun point)”.

Shah later said: “I am saying it for the fourth time and I have the patience to say it for the tenth time. Farooq Abdullah has neither been detained not arrested. If he is not well, doctors will take him to hospital. House should not worry about it’’.

Is Farooq a security threat?

It is believed that the NC president’s detention under PSA is aimed at sending a signal to politicians in Kashmir to fall in line. The Centre is worried that if  J&K politicians like Farooq stick to their stand that rescinding of the special status is unacceptable and unconstitutional, it would weaken New Delhi’s case internationally and encourage Pakistan. It would also embolden mainstream politicians and their supporters to agitate against the Centre. 

It is not the first time that the Centre has deemed Farooq as a security threat. During Indira Gandhi's tenure as prime minister, the Centre had suspected him of supporting pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) when his father Sheikh Abdullah was in jail. During his stay in the United Kingdom, Farooq is said to have toured Pakistan on the invitation of JKLF. 

Former J&K governor and Indira Gandhi’s cousin B.K. Nehru in his book  Nice Guys Finish  Second had accused Farooq of being a member of the JKLF and  published a photo of him shaking hands with Amanullah Khan of the outfit.  Farooq returned to Kashmir from the United Kingdom after the signing of 1975 Indira-Sheikh Accord. The NC won the 1983 assembly elections under the leadership of Farooq due to the sympathy for Sheikh who died a year before . A year later, JKLF founder Maqbool was hanged by the Congress government after his  supporters killed an Indian diplomat in London to secure his release. JKLF supporters and many people in Kashmir blamed Farooq, who was the then chief minister, for having signed Maqbool’s death warrant.  

In 1984, Farooq was dethroned by his brother-in-law G.M. Shah with the support of the Congress led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who was then the J&KPCC chief. The dethroning of Farooq, it was widely believed, was orchestrated by the Congress to avenge the display of obscenity by some men allegedly sponsored by the NC at a Congress rally in Srinagar’s Iqbal Park, which was addressed by Indira Gandhi. Sources privy to the incident told THE WEEK that a few NC supports had removed their clothes before the podium when Indira Gandhi was speaking. One of them was later appointed as police officer by Farooq.